I spoke with Raindance Immersive curators Mária Rakušanová, Joe Hunting, Fangs about the 2025 selection of projects across 8 different categories. Tune in to get all of the latest tips from this year’s selection that is mostly happening on social VR platforms including VRChat, Resonite, and Orion Drift.
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Music: Fatality
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Rough Transcript
[00:00:05.458] Kent Bye: The Voices of VR podcast. Hello, my name is Kent Bye, and welcome to the Voices of VR podcast. It's a podcast that looks at the structures and forms of immersive storytelling and the future of special computing. You can support the podcast at patreon.com slash voicesofvr. So the Raindance Immersive is opening up later this weekend, and it's going to have lots of really amazing art pieces, music projects, stories, videos. I had a chance to talk to three of the curators of Raindance Immersive to get the whole lay down of this latest edition and some of the highlights that they have. that's running throughout the entirety of month of june basically on friday saturday and sunday there's all these different events if you do want to get access to them the best thing to do is to pay the twenty dollars support them you'll get a pdf that has all the links to register it's going to be a fight to actually get tickets to see a lot of the stuff it's going to go out very quickly so you kind of have to act fast be prepared and find out different things that you want to try to see and then try to sign up to see stuff There are going to be things that are not going to be like an event-based. So there are like different games or other narrative experiences that sometimes you have to be in London to see, or sometimes the games are widely available, or there are some experiences that are available. And we'll try to note those throughout the conversation as well. So, Raindance is one of my favorite festivals just because I think they're really highlighting the frontiers of immersive and virtual culture on social VR platforms, especially like VRChat, but also places like Resonite and Orion Drift. But it's a really great opportunity for me to dive in and check out all of what's happening on a platform like VRChat. Really looking forward to seeing all these different artists that are being featured this year and to see as many projects as I can. And I will hopefully be following up with a lot of the creators like I did last year as well, just to feature what's happening on the realm of virtual culture on social VR platforms. So we're covering all that and more on today's episode of the Voices of VR podcast. So this interview with Maria, Joe, and Fangs happened on Thursday, May 22nd, 2025. So with that, let's go ahead and dive right in.
[00:02:10.529] Mária Rakušanová: Hi, Ken. Thank you so much for having us on the Voices of VR podcast. That's a great pleasure to talk to you. I believe now for the fifth year. I'm Maria. I'm the executive producer and curator of Raindance Immersive, a festival both in London, physically, and also a month-long festival virtually on social VR platforms, such as VRChat, Resonite, and this year also inside the new game Orion Drift. I partner with various VR creators all around the world that are indie creators and together with our team, we help them take their wonderful creations more often than not from early concepts into fully fledged productions, and then launch these experiences into the spotlight. So that these experiences have impact and reach audiences, whether it is at our own RainDown CineCity Festival or on social VR platforms like VRChat or in the past, I've also helped probably hundreds of XR game developers and indie creators to also launch their experiences on XR distribution platforms. In my various capacities, I used to work at Samsung on the Gear VR project, then Microsoft, HoloLens, and then at HTC Vive on the content platform, Viveport. And my journey into XR actually started very early in 2009, where I was working in the mapping division of Nokia on HereMaps. And we were working on a 2D mapping application, but in 2009, we launched an AR mode to the app. And then we also had 3D maps through WebGL. So that was kind of the first glimpse into VR and AR. And then I fully dove in in 2014, thanks to my work with Samsung on Gear VR. And then, yeah, in 2016, I started curating immersive experiences at Raindance, which is a film festival from London that originally started in 1992 as a film school. And in 1993, the film festival started and yeah, ever since we have not looked back and all of us here on this podcast, we cannot wait to kick off the festival on 6th of June in VRChat and it's our 10th edition. So it's, yeah, very special. Woo-hoo! Over to Joe.
[00:04:49.098] Joe Hunting: Sure, yes. Celebrations. We're so excited for the 10th edition. My name is Joe Hunting. Been on the podcast a few times now, sometimes with Raindance, so very pleased to be on with you as always, Kent. I'm a filmmaker, first and foremost. I started directing documentary films in VRChat in 2018, which led me to... create a feature film called We Met in Virtual Reality that released in 2022, and most recently a short documentary that is releasing this year in the summer of 2025, which we'll probably talk about later as it's being shown out of competition at Raindance this year. I have been curating and supporting the festival when it came into VR chat, when Ria brought it, the festival, into VR during the pandemic in 2020 as a supporter and videographer and kind of curator of some sorts in the first year and then as a kind of formal curator in the years following. And it's been a fantastic experience. Very excited for this year. I'll leave it there. Over to you, thanks.
[00:05:57.398] Fangs: Yeah, it's a pleasure to be on this podcast. So thanks for having me, Kent. I avidly listen to this podcast. It's one of the only podcasts I listen to, but... So yeah, my name is Mary Lee Desmond, but all my friends in the virtual REM, they call me Fangs. I'm the co-curator for Raindance, but specifically in the music and the live performance categories, and we'll get to that in a little bit. Professionally, I'm an independent musician and producer, as well as a video tech lead for AV companies. So I do a lot of work with music and film. I shoot and edit videos in my free time and I manage a lot of the content you see on the Raindance Immersive socials, like I did the announcement video that we just released this past Monday. I'm pretty proud of it. Actually, the reason why I'm part of Raindance and how I got introduced to Maria was my first performance playing music in VR was actually at Raindance Immersive 2022. I played music in VR with my sister in a band called Cynthia. And yeah, the reason why I play music in VR is because I used to be really planted in the Boston music scene. And when the pandemic happened, you know, my industry and my social life kind of died overnight. And yeah, finding the whole world of VR and world of people playing music in VR really kind of changed my life. So yeah, that's why I'm here today.
[00:07:27.679] Kent Bye: Nice. Yeah. And the announcement video is really well produced and really after watching it, getting really hyped up for the selection. So I'm really excited to dive in. But before we do that, I always like to ask my interviewees a little bit more around their background, just because I find that people are bringing like gaming, film, production, design, architecture, all sorts of other design practices into the medium, whether it's music or anything else. And so I'd love to hear a little bit more context as to each of your backgrounds and your journey into VR, specifically VRChat, just because it's also such a big focus of the Raindance curation.
[00:08:03.760] Mária Rakušanová: Yeah. So as I said, I started kind of super early in 2009, first with like mobile AR and WebGL 3D maps, and then dove into VR fully in January, February, 2014 at Samsung. and then worked for different tech platform companies. And then in 2016, I met Elliot Grove, who is the founder of Raindance. And I showed him VR for the first time. And he was very, very impressed. And he asked me to be the curator of the festival. And I wasn't quite sure what that even meant at the time. But we did agree that during those times, by those standards, I had seen a lot of VR experiences. So Not coming from a film background, coming rather from tech background, still qualified me to be the curator. Yeah, so in 2020, the pandemic was unfolding. And in March 2020, even though the festival was in October, November, I knew that there won't be a physical festival. So I started to hop around different social media platforms. And very quickly, the platform that I chose was VRChat. for a number of great reasons. One was relatively easy Unity-based development. So I was working with two friends on our festival virtual world, and that's how we re-met in VR with Joe again, because we knew each other from real life. And also with other friends who actually became VRChat World Builders themselves. And second reason, We are an indie festival and I just couldn't believe the talent I was discovering because You know, as an indie festival, there was not like some substantial budget to build this world. So I had to like go to community meetup, meet all the different world builders, a little bit hustle and make connections with the different world builders. And I've discovered this incredibly talented, creative community that fosters camaraderie and sharing knowledge. There's also the prefabs community that at the time Fiona, Lakuza and Sayan were leading. And I just couldn't believe what I found on VRChat at the time. So it was, you know, one encounter led to another. I met all the different early VRChat world builders from Lakuza to Fins and Prowler and so on, Metarik. The names of the list is endless. And yeah, I understood that world building should be elevated to the same kind of level as VR game development is. or VR filmmaking, and I kind of couldn't believe how come I rediscovered VRChat in 2020 and not earlier, but at the time better late than never. So yeah, for the first year already in 2020, as we entered VRChat, I established an award for best immersive word that rewarded and celebrated virtual world builders who at the time were telling me I'm just a hobbyist in my bedroom. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no. You're an artist. You're an artist. You're a game developer. You just may not know it yet, but you are. So that's the kind of humbling beginnings, how we landed in VRChat and we were welcome with open arms. And then VRChat just kind of kept on exploding. In 2021, the music community exploded. A lot of the DJs and musicians were coming to VRChat. In 2022, the live performance community, dancers, immersive theater. In 2023, the filmmaking community blew up, largely thanks to lovely and wonderful Joe Hunting with his seminal film, a lot of inspiration there. And in 2024 and now, this year we even curated incredible spiritual experiences, which were already actually created last year as well. And arts also started exploding in 2020 to 2023, and especially in 2024. And in 2025, it's on fire. And yeah, I'll cover more. Okay, over to Joe.
[00:12:20.587] Joe Hunting: Yeah, it's amazing. I'll jump in. For me, I found an interest in documentary filmmaking quite early on in my creative journey. I specialized in making documentaries during my university film degree. And meanwhile, I was also a big gamer as well. I've always been inspired by gaming experiences and massively multiplayer experiences as well. And, you know, the experience of meeting people within gaming environments as characters and in role play situations has always been something I've enjoyed in my free time. And so discovering VR felt like a potential harmony of those two interests. And then I tried my first, I have to say it's because we're talking about Raindance, I tried my first VR headset in 2018 as a volunteer to Maria in the London venue. And I realized, you know, I have to keep exploring this. And it started as an excitement towards gaming and immersive experiences. And then when I tried VRChat for the first time in 2018 and started reading more about the impact of that social experience and the immersive experience of it in a way of like sociology and mental health and Space-making, that was when I realised that was the harmony of my two interests, was VRChat. And I was so fascinated by the people I was meeting there and the communities that were forming that I started using it as a vessel for non-fiction storytelling and then found a lot of curiosity in the filmmaking of that using the... user-generated environments and working with the creators of those environments to tell stories in ways that feel unique and strange, but also deeply heartfelt and human. And that led me down the path of where I've come to now. So there's kind of both an academic in me who's really interested in the impact of this technology, but then there's also a big part of me which was so inspired and really loves just the quality of being in a headset and getting to engage in otherworldly experiences. I could speak a little bit more about my journey into Raindance, I guess. I think it would be good to talk about the film category, perhaps. Maria talked a lot about the kind of general categories, which was definitely led by her, of course. In 2023, I really led the chart to bring short films and also music videos filmed in VRChat to the festival, which of course was championed by the rest of the curation team, which I'm very grateful for. as a way to really give back to the community and help foster a community of creation and network the filmmaking community a little bit more, which has been really successful. We've been showing films successfully over the past three years or two years. And there's also a VRChat community now that exists called the Filmmakers of VR that a lot of Raindance filmmakers come from that community as well. So as Maria said, the filmmaking community has really been thriving. Now, which is really exciting to see. And I'm really curious to see how it's going to develop further, you know, within VR chat, but also externally and how these filmmakers might be using other tools as well in the future to kind of create this remote, real time networked virtual production solution. I think it's really fascinating. So there's a little bit more about me and where I'm coming from. I will pass it to Fangs.
[00:15:52.583] Fangs: Yeah, so as I was saying before, I was pretty much raised in the Boston music scene. My parents are musicians themselves, and my family owned a chain of rehearsal complexes throughout the metro Boston area called the Sound Museum. So yeah, music runs in my blood. So, you know, as a little kid, I remember running through the halls of the Sound Museum and hearing all the different bands play in the different rooms and My sister, my older sister, Casey Desmond is also a pretty prolific singer, songwriter and producer. She was on the first season of The Voice. She has an incredible talent and a huge inspiration for me. And to be able to play music with her is such a blessing, especially here in the VR realm where we don't necessarily live close to one another. We live about an hour away from one another. So it's nice to be able to get together and be artistic in that way. But yeah, so again, as I was saying, when the pandemic hit, our industry basically died overnight. I used to have my own studio, my own soundstage where I would practice with my different bands and I would shoot music videos all the time. for my friends, for my sister, for anyone who would hire me. I'm pretty infamous for being able to make anything happen on a shoestring budget. So that was really hard for me to not have that outlet anymore. It was pretty sad for about a year. I didn't really know what to do. I was sheltering in place and then my Mac died. And so I bought this really cruddy gaming laptop, a gaming PC. My little brother is quite a gamer and basically was like, oh, download this thing called VRChat. We can run around and troll on people. And so not really knowing what it was, I got on there and I very quickly started making friends and I very quickly started seeing that people were performing in this space. And that was a game changer for me. Not really ever performing before and wanting to. I kept on talking about this to my friend, Metarik, because I had finally found a group of people my age who were interested in making substantial art in the space and not just running around and being cretins within the space we're all too familiar with people like that so i kept on telling him i wanted to perform i wanted to perform and he got me in touch with maria and they asked me to perform at rain dance 2022 And that was our first show. And I was saying this to Maria. Maria didn't even know that that was our first show. My sister and I spent an entire week doing tech work to make sure that things would just run smoothly. And yeah, that was the start of, you know, Cynthia performing in the space. Yeah, and then the following year, I just loved what Raindance was doing so much. I kept on asking Maria, how can I help? How can I help? And one thing led to another, and now I'm a curator for Raindance Immersive, and I'm very, very grateful to be part of this team. They're all such lovely people.
[00:18:59.843] Kent Bye: Nice. Very cool. So Maria, maybe you could set some broader context for this year's selection, the different categories, you know, just kind of give us an overview before we start to dive into each of the individual projects that are selected this year.
[00:19:14.706] Mária Rakušanová: Yeah, with pleasure. So for our landmark 10th edition of Reign Down Submissive Festival, we invite you to step into the light. And this metaphor kind of serves both to celebrate the artists who will be stepping into the spotlight, especially the first time VR creators who are debuting their work at Raindance, but also to each and every one of us audience members and participants at the festival. We invite you to step into the light, to get inspired. And not just inspired, but each year, Raindance Emissive Festival is a truly, truly, truly transformational journey. I hear this over and over every year from participants, from artists, that they grow. Throughout the festival, as they come and participate in different events across every possible genre, It is a transformative journey. They come away as better people or more informed people or more empathetic people. And that's why we exist. And that makes us obviously very happy. And that makes it worthwhile to do what we do. And especially now we live in very uncertain times. So both stepping into the light and getting inspired by the incredible art. as well as art itself. So our theme this year, we aptly named it Through Art, We Heal. And we believe that art is sending us a healing frequency. It is energy that the various artists across the selection, across various awards categories and genres are sending our way and to each other. To help us transform, grow, be inspired, but also art serves as a beacon of light. So in addition to stepping into the light, we also hope that you get enlightened, you feel the love, and together as an arts community, it can cause this effect on unity across the world, which is something that is very, very needed right now. And all of this has also informed our curation this year and the various awards categories. So this year we have curated 32 experiences, of which 22 are world premieres, some of which are kind of early first look previews even. For first time creators, 27 of the 32 experiences are on social VR platforms, such as VRChat, two are on Resonite, And then they're also incredibly excited to welcome the developers of Orion Drift into the festival, Kerastal Smith and David Neubold. So Kerastal is the OG developer of Gorilla Tag and David Neubold is the original developer of Echo Arena and oh my God, what a dream team. And they formed another Axiom and yeah, they're now creating Orion Drift, which is in early access. And it's not just a game. It's a social space, just like Gorilla Tag or Echo Arena was. So we want to celebrate that. And it's a great year to bring Orion Drift to the festival. And we'll have a live event with the developers that we're very excited about. So the categories. So each year we have eight award categories. And they are very helpful because they help us frame our curation into very specific VR genres. And each year we look across the industry, we look for innovation, we look for profound new experiences that move the envelope within immersive storytelling or gaming or social VR spaces. And yeah, the VR live performance community has been exploding now for a couple of years and it's no different this year again. So many of the categories are actually live performances. So now the eight categories. So it is, Best game, best narrative for impact. Narrative for impact are documentaries that spotlight various important topics and create a social impact. Then best art world, best art experience. So these two are experiences that have been created in VRChat and Resonite. So there are social VR art experiences and The four nominations within the art role category, they help us feel as if we stepped into a painting or as if we stepped into a sculpture even. And then the art experience category, they kind of add elements of live performance on top of the art. So that's kind of the difference. And then we have best music show. Very excited about this category this year. Then best live performance. Then we have best immersive theater. And last but not least, best short film of VR. And in terms of dates, so Friday, 6th of June, we'll kick off the month-long celebrations in VRChat, Resonate and Orion Drift. We'll wrap up the festival with two awards ceremonies on Saturday, 28th and Sunday, 29th of June. And then between 19th and 22nd of June, we will host our Renaissance Immersive Showcase in London. And then we invite all of you based in London and UK to come and join us. And you don't want to miss Friday, June the 20th, the Renown Simulative Summit. All of these events will be hosted at VU Piccadilly. And we'll have wonderful speakers talking about the various XR experiences that they have created. And we'll also have a few VRChat filmmakers joining us in person, presenting their films and hosting Q&As. So yeah, very excited.
[00:25:22.074] Kent Bye: Yeah. Yeah. What's really great about Raindance, in my view, is that it has had a physical component, but it feels like on the festival circuit, the one that's like VR native, you know, like if you were to design a festival from the ground up, what would it look like? And, you know, to really feature the different art and experiences that are happening on the VR chat platform, but also Resonite and these other social platforms and other narrative experiences or games that are not within VR chat. Like you said, 27 out of 32 are on VR. some sort of VR social program. So yeah, when I look at the overall ecosystem, it's really great. Like during the pandemic, there was a lot of these major festivals that were coming on, but I feel like the types of experiences that are being featured at Raindance are really featuring the virtual culture that's been organically developing within these different social platforms. So I'm always really excited to take a month and then on the weekends, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, dive into lots of these different events and And so these are going live on, is it June 2nd, where people can start to register?
[00:26:21.067] Mária Rakušanová: Yes, that's right. Registrations for the events will be live on June 2nd.
[00:26:26.191] Kent Bye: And I know it's a limited amount of events and they go quickly, so be sure to... They do.
[00:26:32.155] Mária Rakušanová: And this year we're inviting back a lot of the featured artists throughout the 10 auditions. So we will be launching a donation campaign. And when you donate... very small amount, $20, you will get a document with access to all the registration links. So it's not quite a festival pass. It's a optional donation, but of course encouraged. So you get access to the different events and the calendar and the different registration links. And it helps us control crowds, but of course helps us also cover some of our operational costs as a super indie festival.
[00:27:14.932] Kent Bye: Yeah, all things considered, doing it virtual does reduce a lot of the other normal costs that you would have. So you are able to do it on quite a shoestring budget. But yeah, maybe it's a good time to start to dive into each of the different eight categories. Let's start with Joe with the best game.
[00:27:31.676] Joe Hunting: Of course, I'm going to try and keep it. We could talk about all the projects in the selection this year a lot. So I'm trying to keep it concise because there's a lot to get through. So starting with best game, I'm going to kick off with Bullet Time Agent by Lakuza, which is an action game hosted inside VRChat. So it's one that you can play through in a social manner if you want to. And the game features these incredible time bending mechanics where you have to slow and stop time in order to defeat enemies. It's a thrilling bullet hell type game with great puzzles in a sci-fi setting. We showed a preview of this world at the festival in 2022, in fact. And we've had Lakuza, the creator of the game, participate in Raindance in various capacities as a person in competition, as a nominee, but also as a juror. So it's such a treat to be able to highlight this real major work from him that he's been building for several years. We will be hosting a walkthrough of Bullet Time Agent at the festival and we'll be discussing the making of the game and its design principles with him without any enemies to, you know, kill the tour guests. So that's really exciting. We're very grateful to Lakuza to prepare that for us. Next is Ghost Town by Fireproof Games, which is a paranormal detective narrative game set across the UK. The game features excellent performances like incredible mocap, great voice acting, and some haunting puzzles. And the great puzzles come by no surprise because, as you probably know Kent, Fireproof Games made The Room VR, which was an extremely influential series that really set the bar for VR puzzle games, especially PC VR puzzle games as well. So the puzzles are excellent in Ghost Town alongside the brilliant narrative. Now, I'm not great with horror games, but I love puzzle games, and I was able to get through Ghost Town and loved my time there. So if you're apprehensive about horror games, I still really recommend playing this if you enjoy puzzles as well. It's also worth mentioning that Fireproof Games are UK-based, so we're really excited to be celebrating UK arts there as well. Next, Maria already talked about Orion Drift. We have Orion Drift by Another Axiom. And Orion Drift is a massively multiplayer game, largely focused around a stadium, kind of football, handball game-esque, very reminiscent of Echo Arena, alongside just exploring the social VR setting with friends and playing kind of smaller games, like they have a mini golf game, all set on this really stunning space station map. There's so much that we loved about Orion Drift when we first tried it, especially as a festival that, as Maria said, we like to champion social VR. And so recognizing this was really exciting to us. I personally love how the space station setting of Orion Drift doesn't have any loading screens. You're able to kind of freely explore, play games, spectate other people playing those games without needing to tackle complex matchmaking UIs or loading wheels. You can just go wherever you please and it will feel so accessible to the player, which feels really intuitive as a VR player. We're really looking forward to trying to get 75 people of the Raindance community in around Drift during the festival. We're going to be hosting an event specifically for the festival, which is going to be really exciting. And again, very grateful to the team at Another Axiom for working with us on arranging that. Lastly for the best game is The Midnight Walk by Moonhood, which is also published by Fast Travel Games. The Midnight Walk is a dark fantasy narrative game, which is available on Quest, PC VR, and on desktop even as well. You take on the role as the Burnt One, who makes friends with a quite playful character called Pop Boy, who helps you on a journey of survival and wonder through this dark fantasy world. Now, I discovered this game firstly through its composer, actually, Joel Billet, as I was fortunate to feature some of his music in my film work, specifically in The Reality of Hope, which we talked about separately on a different podcast, Kent. So the music of this game immediately was inspiring to me and caught my attention. I think people are really going to connect with the music of the game. I also want to add that the really unique quality to the Midnight Walk is the team at Moonhood created all of the characters by hand physically, I think in clay. I could be wrong. And then they 3D scanned those clay models and polished in 3D apps for the game. And so there's some amazing behind the scenes videos on the creation of the characters and the design principles that went into the clay models, which I really recommend people going to watch. It makes the world feel really amazing to be immersed in. And I think recognizing handmade art within creative experiences and VR and film is also really important to recognize today. So that was really exciting to us. And that's the game category. There's so much more to talk about with each game. All of them have such unique qualities and we're so pleased with this category.
[00:33:10.506] Kent Bye: Yeah, just a quick clarification, because with the games category, I know that you're going to have the physical exhibition at Raindance to be showing them. But a lot of these games, maybe all of them are already available for folks to check out if they wanted to go and play them, right?
[00:33:23.569] Joe Hunting: Yes, that's right. All of them. Yeah. Orion Drift is in early access. It's perhaps the only thing to mention, which is on the Quest store.
[00:33:31.811] Mária Rakušanová: And it's free. So please download it. Check it out. It's worthwhile for sure.
[00:33:37.757] Joe Hunting: Nice.
[00:33:38.318] Kent Bye: Yeah, I know back to 2020 when Rain Dance came around, I was on the jury and actually played through like seven or eight hours of The Devouring with you, Joe, and that's where we met. And so, yeah, it's always a great time to take a look at some of the highlights of indie VR games that have been released and maybe overlooked. And so there's a lot that's going on. And so it's a great chance to check out some of these types of games that have an indie spirit that you're highlighting here at Rain Dance. So looking forward to checking out some of these games. Okay. Well, the next category that we're going to be diving into is the best narrative for impact. And I'll pass it over to you, Maria, to go over this selection.
[00:34:15.784] Mária Rakušanová: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just quickly, Ghost Town and The Midnight Walk will be showcased physically in London. And yeah, Bullet Time and Orion Drift online and on social media platforms. So best narrative for impact. So we're very proud to present for, in essence, documentaries, each of them highlighting a super important topic. So the first one is Ancestral Secret VR, created by two wonderful creators from Chile, Francisca Silva and Maria Jose Diaz Medino, who spent a month in Peru with various indigenous tribes within the Cairo community. And it's a beautiful experience that resonated really deeply with our curational team, especially the kind of themes that we're highlighting this year. There is an ancient prophecy which says that in our planet's difficult times, harmony will be restored when the condor and the eagle fly together again. The condor represents indigenous people and their knowledge about mother nature and earth. And then the eagle represents the Western world, the globalized world. We could also argue technology. And it's an incredible reminder of going back to our human selves and learn from the ancient wisdom of these wonderful indigenous people. And the two creators co-wrote and co-created this narrative with the actual indigenous people in Peru, which is wonderful. I always love it when documentary storytellers co-create their experiences with the protagonists. And key takeaway is that the experience reminds us to go back to our roots and to understand and just come to realization that we're all connected to mother earth Gaia. So don't just spend all of your time on your phone or in VR or in VR chat, go out there, ground yourself, take off your shoes, walk barefoot on grass or sand on the beach. rebalance that root chakra if you need it, because daily life gets very, very busy. And the way how the creators are educating us about this interconnectedness with Gaia is through this experience that is kind of a mixture of 360 live action and also animations and light interactions. And yeah, it really puts us in front of these wonderful indigenous people. And there is also some beautiful aerial shots. that help give this narrative a little bit of a room to breathe and just show us the environment where these people live from kind of like a God view. And it's very beautiful. And the sound design is also very, very beautiful. So yeah, go out there, connect with Gaia. It's very needed these days. The next one is Break the Silence. This is a 360 film by Ukrainian creators. It's an NGO called Save Dnipro. and a production company called Maria Production. And it's a film that takes us to Ukraine, reminds us of their everyday struggle and still, you know, the fourth year of the full-scale invasion and the ongoing crisis that is still happening every day. Sometimes when we have been over the last couple weeks connecting with the creators, some of the calls they couldn't make because they had to go and shelter. So it's their realities, obviously very, very different to the rest of us. And we admire their bravery and the lens that they are taking with Break the Silence is reminding us that the environment is the silent victim of this horrible tragedy of this war and the invasion. And this problem is not just a problem in Ukraine, but obviously the explosions have a detrimental effect on the environment and that kind of travels to other countries as well. And we will be showcasing the phone both physically in London, but more importantly, we have partnered with the wonderful team at Agog that we're very grateful for, who have built a custom 360 video player in VRChat. So we will be hosting a panel with the Ukrainian creators in VRChat. Before we kick off the panel, it will actually be our wonderful narrative curator, Joanna Lee, who will host the panel. We will do the 360 video screening natively in VRChat, and it will be amazing to collectively experience this film, which of course is very different when you are experiencing it solo at a physical exhibition. And the Agog House, where we host the event, and also the Agog 360 video player, is Quest-compatible, so Questies are welcome. Next up is Sands of Time. This is a remarkable experience by an indie multidisciplinary artist, Dope, from Lagos in Nigeria, and a bit of a journey, both for him and myself as well, This experience is executive produced by Electric South and Agog. Thank you. And they invited me to South Africa for a week long workshop where different artists from the entire continent of Africa came and we were four mentors kind of bringing them into VR because most of them had not even experienced VR before. And Dopey chose to tell his story, Sands of Time. in VRChat, so I was very happy to help him throughout this process. The story is very important. It again has a kind of environmental message and it takes us into Tanzania, into the second biggest city Dar es Salaam, which is by the sea. And sadly there is uncontrolled sand mining and it has detrimental impact on the environment it displaces families it apparently destroys houses beaches so we need to do something about it so dopey chose to tell this story and tanzania is not the only african country where this is happening it also is happening in nigeria apparently in south africa as well so this will be a trilogy when it's ready and we are very proud to show a preview In essence, it will be a tour with the artist where he will walk us through the world. But when it's finished, it will be a VR for narrative, narrative world in VR chat with about 25 minute gameplay. There will even be a timer and you need to find different precious stones. And by finding these stones, you will learn about this horrible crisis and you will also stop the sand mining machines. And in essence, you will save the world. And you will assume the role of an explorer, an astronaut, because the local community had to leave Earth because of the catastrophe. So you're the children of these parents who have to leave Earth and you're coming back on Earth to save Earth and reclaim Earth's glory. So another really beautiful Mother Gaia story. And last but not least, the time before, the fourth one in best narrative for impact category. This is a very, very personal story of the creator, Leo Metcalf. And you step into the shoes of a little boy, Ollie, who basically is Leo back in his childhood. And the story takes us through an experience of childhood trauma. And his parents divorced when he was very, very young at an age where he was not even able to make sense of what was going on, why his parents were arguing. It's a very, very powerful and emotional personal story. It's a kind of a blend between his childlike 2D animations and 360 live action footage underwater. And these two kind of blend seamlessly together and the water represents the memories. And the 2D animations represent the kind of reality of him being a small helpless child. The experience ends very beautifully. There's a part where we can feel that Oli has grown up and he is healing. And we hear him cry and kind of cleanse through that process. The experience will be shown physically in London alongside Make the Silence and Ancestral VR. Yeah, and Leo will also be speaking at the Reign of the Massive Summit.
[00:43:45.128] Kent Bye: And I know in the past, the narratives have been one of the categories where they are only available on the physical exhibition. It sounds like the Sands of Time has a VR chat component, and there'll be a way of seeing that. And it sounds like Break the Silence, folks will be able to see that in the Gog House. But in terms of Ancestral Secret VR in the time before, will they be available remotely for folks to check out?
[00:44:04.315] Mária Rakušanová: We will have to wait until they release on the Better Quest, I'm afraid. Both, well, neither of them have been released yet, but I believe after they have done their festival circuit, they will release. And I also invite everyone to hear your podcast with the creators of Ancestral Secret VR that you recorded after IDFA last November. It's really fantastic to hear the creation process and the kind of love that went into making that experience.
[00:44:36.823] Kent Bye: Yeah, they were really collaborating with the indigenous community there, not only the stories that they wanted to tell, but throughout the whole process. And you kind of have an augmented reality type of experience within the context of 360 video, where they start to paint over that 360 video, some of these more indigenous visions of these other worlds blending together. Yeah, it's a really beautiful piece. So hopefully more and more folks will be able to get a chance to check it out once it releases more widely. But at least if they're in London and go to Braindance Immersive, they can check it out there. Okay, so that's the best narrative for Impact. Just a quick follow on is Agog sponsoring any other aspect? Because I know they had an award.
[00:45:15.792] Mária Rakušanová: They generously, no, no, no, they don't sponsor us. They just, they generously created this wonderful 360 video player in VRChat.
[00:45:23.840] Kent Bye: Okay. Okay. Just wanted to clarify, because I know they've been doing all sorts of different amazing stuff within the context of the immersive community and sponsoring, like they're helping with the Tribeca immersive and they had an impact award at South by Southwest. So it's great to hear at least that they've sponsored the creation of a world to be able to do more exhibitions of 360 video, which a lot of these impact projects, I'm sure there'll be more and more opportunities for folks to have a collective experience of these. So, okay.
[00:45:51.143] Mária Rakušanová: We are proud to be the pilot project for that video player.
[00:45:55.024] Kent Bye: Awesome. Well, let's move on to the best immersive theater experiences. So Maria, I think you're also doing this section as well.
[00:46:02.246] Mária Rakušanová: Yes. So I'll start with A Christmas Carol VR, which as the name suggests, is a re-imagination of this wonderful classic in VR. This is a MetaQuest experience, so you will have to download the MetaQuest app. And the production has been created by Agile Lens. And it features the incredible live actor Ari Tarr, which we've had in our festival already like three times, I believe. And he plays different characters, Dickens, Scrooge and others. And there's also a live performance by Debbie Deer as Ghosts. And both of the live actors seamlessly embody multiple roles shifting between characters, between perspectives, past, present, and future. This will be a ticketed experience, $10 per ticket. And all the funds, all the amount goes directly to the actors and the stage managers. So we as festival, we're not taking any cut. So by purchasing a ticket, you are directly supporting independent creators. What's also really interesting and what really caught our attention is the production pipeline that they used. So the whole experience and, you know, the live performance as well is powered by a custom-built performance pipeline in Unreal Engine 5, designed specifically for real-time delivery on MetaQuest headsets, 3, 3S, 2, and Pro. And actors perform as high-fidelity metahuman avatars. So that's really interesting. using the MetaMovement SDK for body tracking and facial tracking capabilities of the MetaQuest Pro that they're using. So yeah, very excited to welcome Agile Lens and their team to the festival this year. Next up is Scarecrow Rekindle, the beloved immersive theatrical production from 2020 is making an incredible comeback to the 10th edition of the festival. So yeah, this was a live immersive theater we had in the festival in 2020, and it has an incredibly interesting journey how it started. So it actually started as a one-to-one location-based immersive theater performance, debuted at Sundance in 2020, where you physically had to enter a room and then you interacted with one actor as one audience member. And there were like haptics and smells and winds and heat and whatnot. And then as the pandemic was unfolding, they submitted to Raindance, but I knew like, okay, physical festival is not going to happen. So I called up the director and I pitched him VRChat and we spent five hours just exploring different worlds. And luckily they actually created the whole pipeline in Unity. So he was like, all right, well, we'll port it. We'll, we'll do it. We'll bring it to Raindance. So that's how it ended up in VRChat at Raindance in 2020 and Initially, it was one actor, two audience members, and then there was an encore performance for 40 people, which was actually great fun. There was a technical glitch where the whole experience for 40 people froze as we were fighting evil firebirds. But then we just restarted the whole experience. It was quite an iconic moment of the 2020 festival. So now back to the story. So the story goes, the evil firebirds have invaded our tranquil town and they have devoured the hearts of all of us, the villagers. And when you enter the world, you see these like scarecrows on like a cross dead. And there is only one scarecrow that has been patiently waiting with tears Only one heart pulsing and he's kind of like out of energy and he's waiting for someone to come and save him. So at Raindance, seven players will enter who will be the active players saving Scarecrow. And additionally, there will be 40 people who will be passive participants. Up until the point when in the narrative we reached a moment where we yet again have to fight the evil firebirds and then collectively we will defeat the firebirds and save Scarecrow together. I'm already giving probably away too much. It was really wonderful that the creators have completely rebuilt the experience from scratch, not only using like Udon and SDK3, but They collaborated with Apple Blossom, who is this incredible shader wizard in VRChat, the creator of SNR Labs. And last year, she also was the tech wizard and particle wizard on Frictions of a Modulated Soul, so Softly Steps Dance Performance, and also Night Under Light, which was in the music category. So it was a fantastic collaboration between her utilizing her incredible skills. Apparently, she built a number of custom shaders just for this performance. And I should probably stop here to not give away too much. But it's going to be beautiful. And especially for those of you who came to the festival in 2020, experienced the early VR chat version of Scarecrow, I think this will be a powerful emotional reunion for sure. All right. So next up we have Symbiosis Dysbiosis by Nanotopia, an artist that we have had in our selection a number of times and her wonderful team. Also another lead artist, Rix. This is a psychedelic immersive theater experience with cooperative gameplay and live actors in Resonite. And it is a really, really unique experience. almost genre-defining immersive theater experience. So the story is around, well, again, just like Ancestral Secret we are, it reminds us that as humans, we are connected to Mother Earth, to a greater good or greater force around us. And everything is connected. We're all connected within the universe. And it's all kind of very beautifully represented through the mycelium mushroom network And Nanotopia has done years of scientific research, and she also discovered that there is connection between the fungi mycelium network in forests and the human brain. So they're also using the Muse headband to measure EEG brain waves. So those of you who will come to the show and own a Muse headband can get in touch in Nanotopia and actually get it set up. And those participants who don't, they will get paired up with Nanotopia's team members who will wear the EEG device. And if their brainwaves hit theta level, and for sure they will, because of the powerful kind of synthesizer music that is created or co-created through the fungi mycelium network itself. So Nanotopia has a ginormous aquarium at home where she has these electrodes put in this like glass aquarium and the mycelium network basically grows on top of these electrodes and via OSC, they're connected to Resonite and that's how she plays music. And it also informs the actual environment and how it changes during gameplay. So for Rain Downs, eight players will be able to enter this gameplay together. In essence, you will go on a puzzle adventure quest. And as you go through this wonderful experience, you are guided by four amazing characters played by an incredible cast of actors. And yeah, you need to find the golden spore in order to enter the mycelium network. I had the great pleasure to also experience this experience in Venice Immersive, where I actually wore the EEG hat band. And I just remember that moment where just I felt something physically in my head or brain, like a swap. And it kind of brought out my inner child. And I started to act like, I don't know, my five-year-old self. And I was completely in the flow, completely in the zone. And then my avatar, which was a human avatar, first changed into this mycelium avatar. And I had no idea what was happening. I literally thought that, oh, okay, maybe the actors are just, you know, rewarding me because I'm such an engaged player. And because I really was, I was in the flow. And then when the experience ended, Nanotopia came to me and hugged me. And she was like, congratulations, your brain waves matched the level, like the frequency of the mycelium network. And it's mind blowing. It's just like, what? I couldn't believe, I couldn't believe that my brain waves connected to something natural. So yeah, there's the scientific proof. I am the scientific proof. I know that there is more players and just to kind of remind us like Delta levels, which is one to three Hertz. That's when we're sleeping deep sleep. Theta is four to eight Hertz, which is deeper relaxation, meditation, and mental imagery. And Nanotopia, I think, is going to be doing more research into brain activity during VR. And I'm very interested in that myself because this was not the first time my inner child awakened in VR. And I consistently have it in VRChat as well, especially in Ann Prowler's worlds. It's always something to do in nature worlds. I don't know why, where, yeah, the inner child just naturally comes out. This will also be a ticketed experience. Tickets will cost $15. Actually, both for Christmas Carol and Symbiosis Dysbiosis, the ticket sales is already live on our website now. So please buy the tickets, support the actors and the stage managers, support these wonderful indie teams. So next up. to round up the immersive theater category is Uncanny Alley, A New Day, which is another incredible comeback to the festival. So in 2020, we had the first incarnation of Uncanny Alley by the wonderful world builder Metarik or Rick Trevik. And it was an open world adventure where we went on a tour with Rick and the kind of loose narrative was that The main protagonist was a hacker called Ghost, and she's gone missing as she was crossing portals between different metaverses. And it left me personally with a bit of a sad feeling of like, will we ever meet Ghost? Which is something I kept on asking Rick, like, Rick, will we ever meet Ghost? Until now. Uncanny Alley, A New Day, a live immersive theatrical performance where you do get to meet Ghost. You do get to interact with her. So the first time I experienced the experience in VRChat, with Deirdre and Steven, the wonderful Fairman Collective, who wrote the script and obviously created the play. And Rick created a brand new custom-built world together with Screaming Colour, who also did the original amazing music. And they both did particles. And there's even Rick's dog that was scanned. That's actually on a sofa in one of the environments. So it was a wonderful reunion with Ghost. So those of you who came to the festival in 2022 and remember Uncanny Alley, I'm sure you will feel emotional about meeting Ghost again. And interestingly enough, I completely transformed and I was in character as I met Ghost. So that the three other players who were playing this with me, they were convinced I was an actress as well, which I was not. I just knew the lore from 2022. So there are two actors, each of them very seamlessly kind of change between, I believe one of them six characters, the other between, I believe nine characters. It's an incredible performance by the live actors. And yeah, those of you who know the IP, there will be some environments that you will recognize and feel emotional about. And at the end of the story, you're giving a choice, whether you want to stay and save the metaverse that has been invaded by evil corporations and fight against them. Or you want to cross a portal and build a new metaverse. And yeah, we'll see who chooses which option. This is also a ticketed experience, $35 per ticket. But for Raindance Immersive participants, there is a coupon code RAINDANCE, which gives you 30% off. And again, all the proceeds, the whole amount goes to the actors and the stage managers. And obviously, please support indie creators in VR. So yeah, that's Immersive Theatre.
[01:00:02.751] Kent Bye: Nice. Yeah. And I remember being at Venice Immersive and talking to you after you'd seen both Symbiosis, Dysbiosis, and Uncanny Alley. And I think you had pretty transcendent experiences after both of them. You had quite a great time in those. And yeah, each of these four, I've actually seen different iterations of them, like Christmas Carol VR. I saw it at Filmgate. 2023, did an interview with Agile Lens team. And Scarecrow, I actually saw at Sundance back in 2020. And then I saw it again at at Raindance 2020, and I have an interview with the creators that I did at Sundance. And then both the Symbiosis and Uncanny Alley, I saw at Venice Immersive and have interviews with those creators. And so I'll be curious to see the rekindling of the Scarecrow. And yeah, check out the Christmas Carol is something that's consistently been done each year. And each year, Agile Lens is like pushing the edge for what's next. And so it's always great to see how they're continuing to push the edge of possibility for what you can do with immersive theater. And it's great to hear that they're bringing it to the Quest platform to bring even more. I think they had it last year as well. I just happened to see it on the PC VR. But yeah, it's great to see all the work that's being done there. And yeah, as we move on, we're moving on to the best music show. So I'll pass it over to Fangs to talk around the experiences that you have in this category.
[01:01:18.786] Fangs: Thanks, Kent. Yeah, just to mirror what Maria was saying, definitely support independent artists in the VR space. We need support. And they're worth celebrating. But yeah, so we're going to move on to the best music show. Every experience in this year's best music experience category actually hails from the land of the rising sun, Japan. The tech they're fabricating in this creative space is really upping the ante in a big sort of way. So yeah, I think that the Japanese VR community is really worth celebrating because they just have this unparalleled creativity. Yeah, so first off, we've got Blue Rondo Stratos. So from EMN Records, they were the winners of last year's Best Music Experience for Jazz Session Connected Waves. This time, instead of being in an underwater venue, we ascend into space in a space elevator called Stratos. So as the performance kind of unfolds, we gradually rise up into space, which is really cool. It highlights all original music performed by these incredibly talented musicians and vocalists. They do this with the use of Yamaha's Synchron, which I wish that we had in the States, but sadly we don't. One thing to note that this experience actually features an acapella performance, which is a massive triumph to execute given the technical limitations of performing in VR. And the world builder TKTK introduced this brand new particle lighting system that they created from scratch and they operate it via MIDI controller. And it really just enhances the atmosphere beautifully. So we're really looking forward to that. And then we have Cinematic Neon Club, Mona Lisa Overdrive. They're a live J-pop trio, and they perform within this geodesic dome vessel that takes us on this journey throughout this cyberpunk-themed world. And they have this really brilliant use of in-world camera systems. So as we're sort of flying through the city, we can see the performers up on these giant billboards as we soar by, which is, I don't know, I thought it was really cool. The music is like drum and bass heavy, but they have these really beautifully sung live vocals over it. The music is like really electric and awesome. And they're kind of like this new emerging group. coming to VR. I'd say we're kind of akin to like a Mocha a little bit. But yeah, I really expect great things to come from Cinematic Dion Club. They're new, but they're coming in hot. So keep your eye out for them. Then next we have ToneVoke Sonic Sky Journey. This is a duo featuring a master synthesized player called Artone and this really amazing particle world artist called VoxelKey. So in this experience, Artone plays live synthesizers, feeding it into the world, and that actually helps generate the visuals we see in the particle system while VoxelKey is working this particle system in real time. The music is like electrifying again with this like raw surge of pulsing energy that drives us forward through this like neon lit storm and we're in the sky over Tokyo, and the landscape is like undulating to the rhythm of the music. And as we soar over Japan at night. We come to a close at Mount Fuji, which Mount Fuji is like dancing to the music. It's really cool. Another really cool thing about this experience is that it's fully improvised. So they are doing this all live and like totally off the cuff, which is incredible because even though it's improvised, the duo just seems like seamlessly in sync. So I'm really looking forward to that one a lot. Great team of people. And then to round off the category, we have an experience called Torchlight. This experience premiered at the Sanrio Festival, and we just loved it so much we had to curate it. It's created by music and visual artist Kinu Kaiko, who collaborated with Ghost Club's Obake to make this experience. It is a larger-than-life portrayal of self-expression, where Kino is visually battling off their demons in this high-energy experience. Full disclosure, the show is really, really intense, but you leave feeling like you just fought and won a really epic boss battle. And another cool thing about it is that it's actually replayable, so people can still view it beyond the festival. Yeah, and so that's that category.
[01:05:56.024] Kent Bye: Yeah, I really enjoyed watching the music pieces last year. And I did actually get a chance to see the live jazz show. And I think it's worth just mentioning that the internet in Japan is like super fast. And also there may be some other like interfaces that they have that they're able to do this kind of live music performance that isn't necessarily available to do anywhere in the world. And you have mentioned something around like they have access to certain specific technology. Can you just elaborate on that? And just what's happening in Japan that's allowing them to do this type of innovations around live music that we're not seeing from other places just yet?
[01:06:32.287] Fangs: Certainly. So there's a service that Yamaha provides called Synchrom, and it's only available in Japan right now. And I think that's probably because their Internet's really fast and they have more centralized servers that make it easy for them to play together live remotely without any latency. That's something that's just not available here in the States. There are similar softwares like Sonobus. which I've utilized before in the past. And I wouldn't say it's great, but it gets the job done. So yeah, just Synchron, they're just able to seamlessly perform together with this software. And I'm really hoping that they bring it to the States soon, because I think it'll be a game changer for a lot of the people performing here in the States.
[01:07:17.947] Kent Bye: So yeah, I guess we'll get a bit of a sneak peek of what's to come with live performance in virtual spaces there. Since we got to see that a little bit last year with the jazz show, which was incredible. So yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing what's happening here in the music scene, especially in Japan. It's a great opportunity to tune in to what's going on the JP side of the art chat. So very cool. Let's move. Oh, go ahead.
[01:07:40.863] Fangs: No, I was just going to say that EMN records never disappoints.
[01:07:44.522] Kent Bye: Nice. Awesome. Well, let's move on to the best live performance. Is this music as well? Or is this other kind of broadly beyond just like music?
[01:07:53.499] Fangs: I mean, it heavily features music, but it's not just music. We've got a little bit of everything. So in the best live performance category, first off, we have an experience called Cathedral of Witches. I find this to be a really rare and powerful piece. It's an act of spiritual reclamation where queer witches are reclaiming a cathedral, which is historically a patriarchal space. So we're greeted by a coven of witches and they guide us throughout the cathedral and each witch offers something unique to the experience. We've got everything from live coded modular synthesizer music to dance performances that kind of signify the breaking of boundaries. We have a part where there is a guided meditation And we even have a live tarot card reading, which is really cool. And on a personal level, this really resonated with me because I am a queer spiritual individual myself. So I just found this piece really compelling. Yeah, so keep your eye out for that. Next, we have Observa presents Luxia Lunacy. So for those who are not familiar with the Lux Nova team, a lot of the Lux Nova team are members from New Eden, because New Eden had a little bit of a split and they went off to do different things. So we have a lot of the dancers and the performers from New Eden coming over to the Lux Nova team. And New Eden had an experience in Raindance 2023 called Darkwood Manor, if you're familiar, which was a very fun piece. But this, we're going to take a 180 and go from serious and dark to absolutely hilarious. And it's this hilarious carnival themed experience that's got dance, audience interaction, lots and lots of comedy bits. and includes attractions like magic tricks. There's a human cannonball, a wheel of death, and even a disappearing act. I personally was involved with the disappearing act during the review, and they teleported me to the back rooms. And then when I finally got teleported back to the stage, they publicly gaslit me. It was hilarious. They were being like, no, no, no. You know, you must have had too much to drink. So, yeah, it's just like an absolutely side-splitting, like, laugh-your-ass-off kind of experience, and you will leave gritting ear to ear. So that's Lugzian Lunacy, and next we have Rhythmic Root, where we spawn into this dapply-lit cave, and all the performers are placed on platforms branching from roots that are spurting down into the cave. We got features from artists from the Taiko Tabiki Flames of the Soul and Inspiration experiences, which were in the music experiences and life experiences last year. And Rain Dance. So we've got the drummer Maru from the Taiko Tabiki drum group and this ethereal vocalist called Ozzy. She's got the voice of an angel. Again, they use Yamaha Synchro to integrate DJing, live drumming, and live vocals completely seamlessly. It's really, really awesome, kind of like organic house music with beautiful vocals on top, all while there is a team of dancers who are visually accentuating different elements of the performance, surrounding the musical performers and dancing with these really beautiful avatars that kind of have these particle systems coming from their hands like streamers. Yeah, and the experience, the mantra kind of is in tune with, you know, music is a universal language and they welcome all walks of life to dance along this experience. So it's really fun and the music is really beautiful. And last but not least, we have Silhouettes of Memories. This production was made by the well-known particle animator, particle world animator Honey Wee Wee, who is a big fan of Odeza. And this whole performance is a stunning homage to Odeza's The Last Goodbye Show. And the team combines amazing, vibrant, pre-recorded animations in tandem with live body actors who basically mime different singing performances as well as drumline formations, which how they get it in sync, I do not know, but maybe they're magic. And another cool element, too, is that all their avatars are silhouetted. So they're really striking against these really dynamic backdrops that are happening behind them. So in like typical festival style form, it's like a really visually captivating 90 minute performance. And you'll leave like you just felt like you saw a really awesome show at a festival.
[01:12:32.609] Kent Bye: Awesome. These all sound incredible. And I know that in years past that this is like a relatively new category of the live performance. Or has it been around for a while? Or is it within last year?
[01:12:44.712] Fangs: It varies from year to year. I think the reason why we wanted to name it live performance is because it's not just music. You know, we've got dancing, we've got spoken word poetry, we've got comedy bits, we've got like, again, a little bit of everything. So we had to define it somehow. So that's why we named it live performance. Yep.
[01:13:04.517] Kent Bye: Well, I know last year, there's a lot of really strong contenders in that program. And there seems to be a lot of technological innovation, narrative innovation, experiential design innovation that are happening in both this program, live performance, but also the live music show. So very excited to see all the various technological innovations and storytelling and experiential design.
[01:13:22.989] Fangs: Yeah, the jurors got their work cut out for them, for sure. It's going to be a hard decision to make. These categories are stacked, in my humble opinion. Yeah.
[01:13:35.228] Kent Bye: Awesome. Well, that's a good place to be. Great. Well, let's move on to the Best Art World, and we'll pass it back to Maria.
[01:13:43.293] Mária Rakušanová: Yeah, so we'll kick off Best Art World with Celestia Nimbus, Guardians of the Six Realms. This is a fully hand-drawn, handcrafted world in OpenBrush, brought into VRChat by a solo artist, Kudo Albus, from China. And the art world was inspired by a 2000 year old ancient story book by the legendary Shan Hai Jing. And it's called Classic Mountains and Seas. And perhaps to bring it to modern times, the artist tells me that it's kind of like Final Fantasy, but 2000 years ago. So you spawn into a skyborne sanctuary. So in essence, this world is kind of floating in the sky and you walk through various hand-drawn environments, each of which have been kind of constructed around six guardians, six characters that were picked from the book. And each of them have a role and their role is to maintain delicate harmony in the world and in the universe. and safeguard six vital realms, ecology, technology, peace, mental wellbeing, culture, and hope. And during the festival, the artist will give us a private tour. She will speak in Chinese, which I'm sure will be really cool to kind of bring us into that true real Chinese experience. And it will be live translated by our amazing co-curator, Ji Yu Hu, who is Chinese native. And she's also the co-curator of a festival in China called Sandbox Immersive. So, yeah, lots to look forward to. And, yeah, each of the environment has been just amazing. You can see every single brushstroke and I've been on the lookout in VRChat for hand-drawn worlds for years. And it's only this year that actually we not only have one fully hand-drawn world created in open brush in the best art world category, but three. So the next one is Goa, Planet of the Lumen Snails. which was, again, handcrafted in open brush by Metamorphosi VR. This is an Italian duo, Nicola Buttari and Andrea Serapiglio. And there is a very interesting personal story that goes back to 2020, where snails have invaded one of the artists' garden. And it was thousands of them. And he somewhat wanted to get these snails out of his garden. And I believe he used some sort of a substance, but not quite realized the destruction it would cause. And as a result, unwontedly, he killed the snails, which he deeply regretted. And yeah, he even made a funeral for these thousands of snails. And he was incredibly sad. It really affected him as an artist, and he started to paint snails on tiles, which he started to paste all around his city in Italy, which then became street art. He also then started to create snail artworks with mixed media, all the way until he created a VR chat world, which is what we're presenting at Raindance this year. So you will be invited to slow down. and honor the snails and the snail mother, our mother Gaia in the snail world. And you will be invited to wear a snail avatar and you will, you know, all of us, we will become snails and slowly but surely we'll make our way around the world. And Nicola and Andrea will be our two snail captains guiding us through this experience. And we will meet the mother snail. We will swim in a lake. We will be taken on a boat ride. We will be meeting various other Lumen characters. And then the experience also, we stop at a snail museum where we learn about the story. And then the experience culminates and ends in a cave where there are musical instruments and we will be invited to create music together. So it's a Again, another reminder of being connected to nature, slow down, remind ourselves to rebalance our chakras in our busy lifestyles and co-create music together with the artists. And yeah, one of the artists is also a professional musician. So yeah, that's Goa, Planet of the Lumen Snails. The third fully handcrafted open brush world is called Natura's Queendom. created by Anders Frey, also a solo indie artist who actually full-time works on Call of Duty. Creating art in VRChat is a refuge for him from the first-person shooter, which is his day job. And he's been creating virtual worlds, I believe, since 2020. And first he created Natura as an avatar, and it actually became a very recognized... avatar on the platform. And I heard this from other fellow creators who kind of thought this avatar is one of the most beautiful avatars in VRChat and her dress was handcrafted in open brush and there is custom shaders. And the artist always wanted to also bring the story of Natura into VRChat. And in 2023, he collaborated with PK. on the music experience called Equilibrium, where he contributed with an environment within that musical journey. And then that's when he decided like, okay, I'm now going to create Natura's world and tell her story in VRChat and create it. Quite actually a substantial hand-drawn world. It's not small at all. There's a lot of parts that you discover. So you spawn into a very cozy tree trunk. where you're invited to wear the avatar and she's sleeping, the queen is sleeping. And there is a beautiful kind of translucent mirror where you can use the radial menu of the avatar and you can change her makeup, her hair, her flower crown, her dress. So you can fully embrace your inner queen. And it's also another experience that awakens your inner child, I'm sure, for many. And at the same time, This is also an experience that reminds us that it doesn't matter whether we are men or women or anything in between and how we identify. There is a divine feminine energy and a divine masculine energy in all of us. And Natura's queendom invites us to embrace our divine feminine. And we are becoming queens. which I'm sure will be a really interesting experience for many people who will join the artist on the tour. And he created different biomes within this world. Each of them look visually a little bit different, yet the world obviously is very consistent all around. So first we step into a lush, beautiful flower garden. We can take a dip in a little lake. Then we pick up flower petals. Then we go to... kind of like a crystal section where the avatar actually has a star heart or a heart made out of like a crystal that is kind of like from outer space. And those people who are into like healing crystals, imagine it's like an amethyst or maybe rose quartz perhaps that is connected to your heart chakra. We can think about it that way as well. And then we journey to, we meet Froggy, a little friend of Natura. And then we journey through the Caretaker's Bridge into another flower garden on top of a beautiful river that he used lots of crazy, beautiful shaders. And then we come to a mushroom forest, which is where we meet Natura's celestial friend, Starheart. who's a known jazz singer on the VR chat platform and an all around incredible creator and also the winner of best music video category last year at our festival. And Starheart composed sounds throughout the world, which really bring the world to life. And she also composed an original song that she will perform for us as Natura's celestial friend. inside the mushroom forest and then we continue through like a glacier lake and then we jump into a waterfall and then we dip ourselves into the river and then we end up around a bonfire and that's where the Q&A will take place and that's how we end the tour. And each of the tours that we are actually doing for these art worlds in VRChat end on a Q&A component. So, and then the fourth also handcrafted world is Homage, but this world was handcrafted and co-created inside the Resonite platform by Nanotopia and Rix, the creators of Symbiosis Dysbiosis. And it is a love letter to the iconic French artist Jean Giraud, also known as Morbius. And it pays tribute to his visionary artistic legacy and his various collaborations with various other very iconic artists, such as Alejandro Jodorowsky or Ferdyn, where Mobius was the concept artist, or René Laloux. And also it's a homage also to the revolutionary spirit of Metal Hurlant, which is the heavy metal magazine that was founded by Mobius. And you can wear custom avatars in this world as well. Nanotopia, she will be in character and she will take us through the world and you will meet various different characters that are very iconic in Mobius' work. So those of you who are fans, it will be an absolute treat. And those of you who may not know the artist, you will learn a lot about the artist. The experience also ends on a little gallery section. where we will get to learn about the various kind of artworks that are 2D, but Nanotopia and Rix brought them into a three-dimensional virtual world space. So we are walking through Mobius's art, which is amazing. And not just walking through, but flying through. There will be some flying involved on birds and inside bubbles, and we'll be entering pyramids, and we will collectively expand our consciousness, I'm pretty certain. So that concludes Best Art World. And Homage and Natura's Queendom also have a double nomination in Best Art Experience category.
[01:25:43.996] Kent Bye: So in the next category, we have Best Art Experience. And like you said, there is a couple that are in the Best Art World that are also in the Best Art Experience. So what's the difference between Best Art World versus Best Art Experience? And will those experiences be any different between the way that they're exhibiting for one or the other?
[01:26:01.027] Mária Rakušanová: Okay, so... In terms of their tours, so Natura's Queendom and Homage, the tours will be the same, but there is that element of either having an art museum component, which Homage, we could argue that the entire world is a three-dimensional art museum and a homage to Mobius, and it also ends on a kind of an educational section. So it either has a component of an educational art museum type of experience or a live performance, which in the case of Natura's Queendom, there's obviously that original song created by Starheart and also brought to life and performed. She will live perform the song. Equally, so the 200 nominations, What is Virtual Art? Volume 1, that's a fully virtual museum. And I'll get to that in a second. And then the continuous present. This is a art museum style of exhibiting virtual sculpture meets poetry and video poetry. And there is also a live recital of poetry in the continuous present. So I'll I'll dive deeper into the continuous present created by two wonderful artists from Australia, Rivers Butcher and Kylie Supski. RVB is the visual artist and the co-poet on the project. And Kylie is the co-poet and the performer. And RVB, she actually pitched me this project in 2022. And it was... At the time, well, the way how it was created and handcrafted, she scanned vintage paper from books and created three-dimensional sculptures in Unreal Engine. And they are, you know, the heavy textures, but of course, incredible virtual art. She also used Virtuoso to compose original music. And together with Kylie, they co-wrote the poetry. And created four sculptures that each of them has a live poem. And these four sculptures and poems, they explore the themes of love, consciousness, duality, and transformation. And the work that was pitched to me in 2022 was kind of 2D recordings of these video poems with kind of beautiful shots around these incredible, larger-than-life monumental VR sculptures with beautiful metallic textures. And my first thought was, do you think you could bring this to VRChat or another social VR platform? Which at the time was very challenging. But yeah, in January, RBB calls me up and she's like, I have something to show you in VRChat. And to my absolute utmost surprise and delight, I finally got to experience the four sculptures in their full glory in VR. So this is the first time. when anyone can experience these monumental, beautiful sculptures in their native form. And it took her a while. It also took VRChat to get to the level of the platform with the different tools that exist for such an incredible artwork to be brought into VRChat. Each sculpture is still ginormous. So we will meet in a kind of like an art gallery world. And then from there, we'll go to the first sculpture world And as we explore this ginormous sculpture and it has incredible scale and we can kind of walk around it, into it, we'll be hearing also the poem that accompanies the theme of the sculpture. There is four such sculptures. So there's four such virtual worlds. And then the end back in the gallery world where Kylie will then recite live the fifth poem. So it's very unique and I'm very excited for this and I'd like to invite physical art gallery curators to join us to see this because this, in my opinion, is kind of future of art presentation utilizing XR technologies. And yeah, this is just, I think, the beginning. And similarly, What is Virtual Art? created by a prolific Chinese artist, curator, he's also an architect, game developer, all-round talent, Jessian. And in 2023, he was the winner of Best Art Experience with the earlier version of Virtual Museum of Virtual Art. So this year at the festival, the Virtual Museum of Virtual Art presents a group exhibition called What is Virtual Art? There are three Chinese artists and one Western artist, which actually happens to be Rivers Butcher. And Jessian sent out a call for submissions a couple of months ago and yeah, selected these four incredible artists and each of them in their artistic practice, they kind of are inspired or their practice is rooted in a form of traditional art. And that kind of informed the creation of each of the various digital pieces. So one of them, Zheng Chen reimagines shadow play, paying homage to ancient Chinese shadow theater. And how it's represented in VR is just incredible. Then we have Polaris, transforming theatrical scenery. Then we have Lee Chianti, reinventing the art of pop-up books, and you will be walking through a pop-up book, and there is an absolutely mind-blowing section. And then, last but not least, Rivers Butcher, through her sculptures, monumental sculptures, where she kind of used canned vintage paper, is kind of deconstructing collage. And this is a 90 minute experience, a true virtual museum that will launch as a VRChat world on VRChat 6th of June, day one of the festival. And you can go through it in kind of like a self-guided tour because Jesse and the way how he created the space, I mean, he's an architect at the end of the day. And also prepare the narrative, just preparing us for the exhibition. kind of describing the history of virtual art all the way to the each individual artist's own narrative. And the narrative of the artwork is just, to me, it just feels like I'm in MoMA or the Tate Modern in London. It's just incredible. So that concludes best art world and best art experience. And you're in for a treat as our juror this year.
[01:33:02.915] Kent Bye: Nice. Looking forward to diving into all of these. Very cool. Well, let's go to the final section. And actually there's two sections. There's the last one in competition, which is the best short film in VR. And then there's a couple of out of competition pieces. And so pass it over to you, Joe, to bring it home.
[01:33:19.238] Joe Hunting: Of course. Yes. And congrats to those who are still with us listening for the whole program. And so much to look forward to. So before I get into Best Short Film, just to talk broadly about the short film categories. Over the past two years, we've had Best Short Film of VR and Best Music Video of VR. However, this year we received many incredible short film submissions and less music video submissions. So after much deliberation within the team... we decided to move forward with just the best short film of VR category, which also gave us a little bit of extra room to do two out of competition films as well, which are also somewhat of a curator spotlight. So just wanted to shed a bit of light on why we don't have music videos this year. However, very excited to be talking about the short films that we have. I'll start with A Dutchman in Virtual Japan by Madame Karner. Madame Khanna is returning with another VRChat documentary after her excellent film New Eden Evergarden that was shown at last year's festival. A Dutchman in Virtual Japan felt like a film that we just needed to show at the festival as soon as we saw it. It presents the story of how a beloved VR photographer named K-Room discovered his passion for VR. And as audiences will see in the film, Keirun has been a really valuable connection between the Western and Japanese community of VRChat. And the film introduces many Japanese artists and individuals and groups through the eyes of Keirun as a photographer. It's a really unique and precious documentary, I think, about overcoming language barriers and fostering community. We obviously love Keirun at the festival, so there's some bias there, of course. He's a photographer at so many of our festival events, and many of the Japanese groups and individuals that are represented in the film are also friends of the festival, or even some people that are in competition in 2025 as well. But Madame Karner has clearly improved so much of her filmmaking skills and has really taken a step up from New Eden Evergarden, which is why I felt like we needed to show it. And we're very excited for K. Rune and everyone who was a part of that documentary. Moving on to Broken Past by Slapnap, known as his VRChat username. Broken Past is a mystery thriller portraying a young man named Alex whose haunting past is beginning to catch up with him, disrupting the peaceful lifestyle of friendships that he's been trying to lead his life with. I don't want to share too much about this film because I think it's good to go in blind and to let the mystery wash over you. What I do want to say is that this is a debut film from a UK-based filmmaker. It's also premiering at the festival. So we're very excited to be recognising new talent and upcoming talent. Next is Our Precious Autumn by Kung Lu. The director, Kung Lu, and his incredible team at Studio Penrose is a team that we've shown at the festival before, and Kung has participated in the festival in various ways. This film is a heartfelt and poetic film that portrays the story of Ami, a manga artist suffering from severe burnout. The film follows her as she realises how overworked she truly is, leading her to three profound encounters that motivate her to make changes in her lifestyle to overcome the burnout. It's got a really moving and hopeful message, which I think a lot of audiences will be able to relate to, especially those in creative fields. And this is a film that's also premiering at the festival this year. Finally, to conclude the in-competition work is Star-Crossed Coast by Danny Gray. Now, Star-Crossed Coast is a six-episode VR Chat Made web series. We're excited to be presenting episode one, which is titled The End of a Life. The series delves into themes of friendship, healing, and self-discovery, telling the story of Quincy, who is recovering from scars in a past relationship and in a motorcycle accident, with the help of his friends around him. Now, Danny Gray is a very talented director, and I love this film's sensitivity and intimacy towards its subject matter, which is naturally quite serious and mature. This first episode, The End of a Life, is out now. So if you can't wait for the screenings, which I'll tell you when they are, you can watch this film already. We also had Danny Gray show Golden Hour in 2023, which was in the best music video category. If you liked that music video, you'll certainly love this episode of web series because it follows the same characters. Before I talk about the Out of Competition, these four films will be presented at the festival in our VR chat screenings on the 14th and 15th of June, and will also be screened in London on the 20th of June. Now, the Out of Competition Works, I think is also somewhat of a curator spotlight, which we're really excited to be doing. I'm obviously very grateful because I'm one of the films. But to start with The Architect Across Realities, this is a film by Jiwoo, who's on our curation team. Jiwoo's fascinating documentary introduces OG Chan, as he's known in VRChat, that's his username. And he is a visionary architect who specializes in designing spaces that converge physical and virtual. The film presents a really intimate look into his creative process. For example, we learn about his approach to creating a virtual twin to the famous underground club, Metro Kyoto in Japan. I think the film has sparked curiosity in how we can approach designing spaces for virtual and physical usage and creating twins of environments in a domestic and commercial, also entertainment sense. I think it's great for anyone who's interested in architecture within an XR perspective. This film will be released during the festival, which is really exciting. And the final film that's out of competition is The Reality of Hope, directed by myself in co-production and produced with Max Wilson, who was on the Voices of VR podcast. with you, Kent. So if people are interested in The Reality of Hope, you can check out that individual podcast. The Reality of Hope tells the story of two friends who met in VR. One of them named Hiyu is a very talented developer within Forality who was unfortunately diagnosed with kidney failure. And his friend, Fotografotter, who lives across oceans in the US in New York City, offered to donate his kidney to Hiyu. And he flew from New York to Stockholm, where Hiyu is based, to be a live donor to him. It's a really hopeful film about how VR could create really meaningful friendship. And we will be presenting both the Architect Across Realities with G.U. and the Reality of Hope with myself, accompanied by Max, my co-producer, and Hayu, a photographer, on the 28th of June, following the first awards ceremony. The film will also be played in London on the 20th as well. And that is our short films that are playing at the festival. Really excited to have a very varied collection of short films, both in documentary and narrative.
[01:41:11.547] Kent Bye: Very cool. Well, I'm really hyped up to see as much as I can get into to watch these different experiences. And I ended up having the capacity to do a bunch of coverage of the different artists last year at Rain Dance. And I'm hoping to do similar this year of covering a swath of the different experiences and programs and artists. Yeah, it's just a really great highlight of the virtual culture that's been emerging and the different art and story and music and performance that's being created. So yeah, looking forward to diving in and really enjoyed talking about everything. But as we start to wrap up, I'd love to hear everybody what they think the ultimate potential of these different types of immersive art, immersive stories might be and what it might be able to enable.
[01:41:52.791] Mária Rakušanová: Yeah, so in the last two years, I think my answer to this question was the future of XR is social, and I still thoroughly believe that. And we can see it each year at the festival. Beautiful memories are formed. Beautiful friendships are formed. Beautiful collaborations are formed. Many of them re-enter the festival the following year, which is what we're seeing in this year's selection. And as we were curating this year's experiences kind of heavily inspired yeah just the geopolitical situation and kind of uncertain times that we live in we've also started to kind of encounter elements of spirituality so i personally started to do research into spirituality which i was very very new a couple of months ago And the spiritual community kind of sees our human experience as kind of like 3D. And our human experience, we kind of live it, embody it, and experience it in the 3D physical world through our physical bodies. But this concept of new earth, new spirituality, we are on the rise to a kind of collective new 5D consciousness. which there's no such thing as good and bad in the 5d consciousness everything and everyone is interconnected and we're interconnected with the larger universe which kind of made me think like okay so we have day to day we experience the 3d and those people who are kind of spiritually awakening we're kind of awakening to that collective 5d consciousness and obviously mother gaia and us connected to Madagascar and the larger universe is very helpful on that journey. And where I place XR is that kind of 4D space in between these two. I mean, I'm a kind of living example of this 4D where, for example, in symbiosis, dysbiosis, my brain waves reached that theta level. And it was kind of like a spiritual experience in that sense. And I felt like I ascended to a higher version of myself or to potentially even that higher new 5D consciousness. So I believe that XR technologies and the power of the art that artists create and the way how they use technologies and especially social VR spaces can bridge the world between that everyday 3D painful world and that higher 5D consciousness and Perhaps XR is somewhere in that 4D, the kind of the two that links these two together. And yeah, perhaps it can help us accelerate our rise to this new 5D collective consciousness where we transform from a fear-based survival, everyday life to... unity, love operating out of our heart. And yeah, that's what we need. That's what we need. And yeah, the time is now.
[01:45:12.745] Joe Hunting: Thanks. Do you want to jump in? I love the spiritual answer there, Maria. That was brilliant.
[01:45:16.688] Fangs: Yeah, me too. The time is now. The time is now. Step into the light.
[01:45:22.232] Joe Hunting: That's it.
[01:45:22.952] Fangs: That is it.
[01:45:24.333] Joe Hunting: Take it away, thanks.
[01:45:25.874] Fangs: Sure. I mean, I can talk a little bit about what I want to see in the future. So right now, performances in VR are largely free. Artists pour months, sometimes years of blood, sweat, and tears into creating these experiences purely out of passion. I really want to see musicians and performers make a living in this space, a sustainable living, rather than relying on free performances, platform partnerships, or one-off funding, community support, whatever. I think we need a formalized economic structure that would make all the difference. integrated ticket systems for virtual venues or subscription models for exclusive live performances you know even like immersive merch sales that fans can purchase like digital t-shirts or whatever that's all tied to like an artist brand i think that would help you know artists make a little bit more money Like VR has the potential to revolutionize live entertainment as we know it. I mean, it's already doing that. You know, VR offers immersive, interactive and globally accessible experiences to anyone who has a headset. And the artists who are embracing that right now are the pioneers in this realm. You know, they're merging creativity and technology in ways that the world has never seen before and yet are making little to no money. Why is that? You know, in order to make this movement financially viable, cross-platform and cross-instance accessibility really needs to improve right now. Platforms like VRChat limit instances to only 80 people. I mean, that's quite restricting, and I'm really hoping that that changes kind of soon. 80 people is not a lot of people to have at a show, unless you have the ability to do cross-instance performances. Like, Slyfest does that. But if they could bridge multiple spaces, whether it's streamed across different platforms or integrated with physical concerts, musicians could connect with a much larger audience without just being locked into one ecosystem. And from a creative standpoint, more accessible tools for interactive staging or real-time audience engagement and adaptive environments could elevate performances far beyond what's possible in traditional realms. Yeah, I also love to see VR music move beyond just passive viewing, you know, we have the potential to be deeply interactive and have personalized experiences in VR so where the audience can participate and actively shape a show. So I think that that has, you know, some untapped potential. And beyond realism, VR strength relies in its ability to defy physics, so why not embrace experimentation? Music fused with world building and live interaction has, again, so much untapped potential. And with the right tools and monetization strategies, it could really define the future of entertainment entirely. So why isn't there more capital driving this tech forward? It might just be my two cents, but as a musician and an artist, I have like a massive chip on my shoulder about it. So I really just want artists to make a living in this space.
[01:48:41.875] Joe Hunting: Nice. Yeah, it's a difficult road at the moment, I think, in user-generated platforms, which are obviously on the rise. My answer to the future of XR, I think, will speak from a filmmaking context because that's typically what I speak to. Well, recently I've been really interested in how valuable embodiment and handmade kind of the human touch on this work is. And that speaks to a lot of the projects that we have in selection this year. I think that's been almost like a common thread that we've raised as a handmade nature to work. I think it's incredibly powerful how important the body is to the experience of XR. And within a filmmaking context, I think I'm still exploring ways in which we can create films in a remote context with actors from across the world with their body. and using VR as a way to catch a mocap, live expression, and allow the actors to authentically perform off each other. I think there's an incredible potential there that I'm looking to make my next film in that fashion in a way that uses VR chat as an inspiration and a reference point, but creating or using other engines like Unreal Engine or or separate engines than VRChat to achieve a more iterative pipeline and more creative freedom. So I think for me, the current potential in XR is how we can shoot an independent low budget film with actors from across the world in an authentic and human way.
[01:50:23.860] Kent Bye: Awesome. And is there anything else that's left unsaid that you'd like to say to the broader immersive community?
[01:50:29.454] Mária Rakušanová: Come join us at the festival.
[01:50:31.695] Kent Bye: Yes, that's a great one.
[01:50:33.596] Mária Rakušanová: Yeah, come join us at the festival. 6th of June to the 29th. Step into the light with us and the artists in the selection this year and ascend to 5D consciousness with us.
[01:50:50.306] Joe Hunting: i could do some just final thank yous as well like just huge thank you to our curators joe lee and gu who are not on the podcast with us today to the world builders hysterium lucy lou for fence's help our team members troppy black robe garvas dangleberry kinsey jenny and also the interpreters translators who've supported us potato alpaca there's more Riku, thank you. Sana, who might be assisting with a French translation and the many photographers and just our greater community for the positive energy that you put into what we do. It's why we do it. And also in respect to that, just to go back to, we have a donation box open this year. So if you'd like to consider supporting the festival and our initiative, what we're building, please consider checking out the donut box.
[01:51:44.345] Kent Bye: Nice. Thanks. Any other final thoughts?
[01:51:47.113] Fangs: What they said. Okay.
[01:51:51.216] Kent Bye: Awesome. Well, Maria, Joe, and thanks. Thanks so much for doing a deep dive into this year's program. It was a real pleasure to hear a lot more about each of these projects. And I'm really excited to dive into the program. And yeah, like I said, I really see Rain Dance as being on the frontiers of curating and cultivating these immersive artists. Because you're not only... featuring them, but it creates this deadline that a lot of art is created because of Raindance. And so it is this feedback loop cycle where you're not only featuring it, but you're also helping to seed and catalyze and provide a platform for these artists to exhibit the frontiers of immersive culture. So it's always a real pleasure to kind of dive into the latest innovations and Yeah, experiences and art and stories that are being told here. And I'm really looking forward to all the different experiences here at Raindance Immersive 2025. So thanks again for joining me today on the podcast to help break it all down.
[01:52:43.868] Mária Rakušanová: Thank you so much, Ken.
[01:52:45.169] Kent Bye: Thank you so much.
[01:52:46.310] Mária Rakušanová: Raindance, since its beginning, stood for discover, be discovered. So yeah, you discover and be discovered as an artist at the festival.
[01:52:59.258] Fangs: It's going to be a good one.
[01:53:01.118] Mária Rakušanová: Yeah, we're very much looking forward to it. Right now it's 10.
[01:53:06.802] Joe Hunting: All right. Thank you all.
[01:53:09.584] Kent Bye: Thanks again for listening to this episode of the Voices of VR podcast. And if you enjoy the podcast, then please do spread the word, tell your friends, and consider becoming a member of the Patreon. This is a supported podcast. And so I do rely upon donations from people like yourself in order to continue to bring this coverage. So you can become a member and donate today at patreon.com slash Voices of VR. Thanks for listening.
